Donald Trump Held Another Million-Dollar 'Candlelight' Dinner—With Elon Musk in Tow

An invitation to a “candlelight” meal held this past Saturday astatine President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago nine asked prospective guests to walk $1 cardinal per seat. Trump attended the meal on with Elon Musk, according to aggregate photographs and videos of the lawsuit viewed by WIRED.

Elon Musk, wearing his modular azygous of a achromatic athletics overgarment implicit a achromatic T-shirt, was seen shaking hands and waving to different attendees. He was with a pistillate wearing a level magnitude gown who appeared to beryllium Shivon Zilis, according to Instagram Reels posted by aggregate guests. Zilis, a Neuralink enforcement who antecedently sat connected the committee of OpenAI, is the parent of 4 of Musk’s 14 known children. (Zilis did not instantly respond to a petition for comment.)

Musk, whose alleged Department of Government Efficiency has spent the past six weeks ransacking national agencies, sat adjacent to Trump astatine the dinner.

WIRED antecedently reported connected different candlelight meal held connected March 1 wherever guests were besides invited to walk $1 cardinal per person. That lawsuit appeared connected the president’s nationalist docket with a enactment speechmaking “the President attends the MAGA INC. Candlelight Finance Dinner.” The March 15 candlelight meal did not look connected the authoritative schedule.

“You are invited to a candlelight meal featuring peculiar impermanent talker President Donald J. Trump,” states the invitation, obtained by WIRED. “$1,000,000 per person.” The invitation has a “MAGA INC.” header and a enactment astatine the bottommost of the invitation reads “Donald J. Trump is appearing astatine this lawsuit lone arsenic a peculiar impermanent talker and is not asking for funds oregon donations.” MAGA Inc., oregon Make America Great Again Inc., is simply a ace PAC that supported Trump’s 2024 statesmanlike campaign.

WIRED has besides reported that concern leaders could unafraid a one-on-one gathering with Trump for $5 cardinal astatine Mar-a-Lago. The $5 cardinal meetings person go a “hot ticket” successful the concern community, a root acquainted with them antecedently told WIRED.

The White House did not instantly respond to a petition for remark astir the lawsuit oregon the deficiency of the event’s inclusion connected the president’s authoritative schedule.

Experts WIRED has spoken with astir these candlelight dinners person noted concerns astir their antithetic nature. “I can’t callback a sitting president successful the archetypal weeks of his medication asking for millions of dollars successful fundraising,” Don Moynihan, a prof of nationalist argumentation astatine the University of Michigan, antecedently told WIRED. “The interest is little astir fundraising and much astir entree and power … People hoping to get favorable attraction presumption it successful their involvement to donate wealth to Trump.”

The candlelight meal occurred implicit the aforesaid play arsenic the Palm Event, an yearly solemnisation of motorsports successful Palm Beach, Florida. One of the celebration’s play events occurred astatine Mar-a-Lago connected Sunday day and featured “street sportscars and cars with a motorsports heritage, one-of-a-kind, conception cars, celebrity-owned and cars with a racing history,” according to the Palm Event website. A fig of these cars appeared the nighttime anterior astatine the candlelight dinner, according to Instagram reels that featured guests milling astir a Rolls Royce, Bugatti, and Lamborghini, among different luxury vehicles displayed connected the lawn.

The evening besides coincided with a superior escalation successful Trump’s crackdown connected immigration. On Saturday, portion Trump and Musk dined with MAGA donors, a national justice ordered the White House to halt the deportation of radical the Trump medication alleged were Venezuelan pack members. Despite that ruling, 2 planes carrying the alleged pack members flew from Texas to El Salvador. Senior officials reportedly told Axios that the ruling held nary unit “because the flights were implicit planetary waters.”